Week 3 DFS Locks of the Week: Falcons-Saints could promise fireworks

Our DFS Locks of the Week actually panned out pretty well despite the misery that was NFL Week 2, with the one exception being Eli Manning. He wouldn’t have even been a miss had Odell Beckham Jr. caught the would-be-50-yard touchdown that would would’ve netted Manning more than 400 yards and a touchdown. Fortunately, our other lock, Carson Palmer, came through in a big way.

If this is your first time visiting the Locks of the Week, this space goes through the entire slate of games and find the players who are virtual locks to perform at a high level. And no, I won’t point you to Antonio Brown (who is going to go bonkers this week) or Julio Jones, because that would be too easy. No, the idea of this piece is for DFS purposes so that you can have guys in your lineup who don’t cost the maximum, but will out-produce their cost. They are also guys who should be in your season-long lineups if you’re on the fence about who to start.

Quarterbacks

Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons (at New Orleans)

It’s easy to say that fantasy’s No. 2 quarterback through two weeks should be on this list, but there are still plenty of Ryan skeptics out there, and rightfully so. He was terribly mediocre last year, finishing with more than 20.1 fantasy points just one time, despite throwing the ball 614 times, which ranked fifth in the league. But what has changed with the nine-year veteran? It was his touchdowns that were lacking last year, as he threw just 21 of them, the lowest since his rookie year. Through two weeks, he’s almost a quarter of the way to that number.